racism

Biometry and eugenics co-emerged partly because of the white man’s burden – the need to police native populations who all looked the same – and to align measurable physical characteristics with the divide between ‘fit’ and ‘unfit’ races (Galton advocated colonising Africa with Chinese immigrants to replace the indigenous ‘lazy, palavering savages’). Biometrics weathered the last century better than eugenics. As of now a new divide looms between the creditworthy, who can create their own virtual identities via ‘identity 2.0’ accreditation, and migrant populations whose identities get fixed biometrically, mainly in order to keep them out.

Christmas is over in much of the world, but not quite in Spain, where today is a special day (as it is in many Orthodox and Coptic Christian communities), for it is the day when childred get their presents from the three wise men…
On a day like today then, I just wanted to share a detail that may not be very important but it is revealing of how some people view the world…
It is about Cortylandia (a traditional children-oriented decoration) that El Corte Inglés (a very popular department store which is something like a not-so-fancy-cousin of Harrod’s or Macy’s) sets up every Christmas season. This year, the theme was “The world of toys”, and the decoration sought to reflect the most important monuments in the world, and people from these countries wishing a Merry Christmas.
The interesting bit is the choice of monuments – five out of seven are European – as well as the demographic balance – among the fourteen people there is not a single black person, only two asians, one American indian, and the rest, as caucasian as they come.
“Eurocentric” you say?
Photo: Flickr